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Show $1,390 SHORTAGE Found in Books at Court House. Auditors Dryden and Thain Make Report. OFFICIALS CAN'T EXPLAIN Or did not, at least. Responsibility is not Placed. Investigation may go Further. Kcu'ial weeks agoTui: Rr.iTiu.n an made ccitaln statements concerning a Huh s at the Com t House, alleging that a special auditing committee conslstingofW.il. Thaln and Piof. Drjden had dlscoeied what appeared to be discrepancies In certain accounts. ac-counts. It was impossible to gle facts and figuics at that time, as the committee's lepoit was not icady for the commissloneis. SIlOUT.Uli: OK $1300. That iepoit was dually passed upon at a special meeting held on Wednesday Wednes-day of this week, and the same Is hardly ciedltable. The iepoit shows that the books hae been very loosely kept, and that $1300 Is missing. Just wheie It has gone, or who got It, is not stated, and It may take a long time todiscovci It, if the attempt is ecr made. The auditing commlttee'.s iepoit was accepted and the alTalr Is in abeyance abey-ance until the commissloneis decide whether they will take further action. Ex-Tieasuier llendiicksasks that the audit of his books go back to the beginning be-ginning of his term, and this woik may bo begun about the Hist of the jcar. Until this is definitely decided theie will be nothing fuither said or done. TIIK UF.l'OUTS The committee's iepoit on ex-Clcik Fanell's books was picsented on October Oc-tober Hi, and of the Tieasuier's books on No ember 30. Theso two gentlemen weie piovidcd with copies of the same and requested to appear befoie the Hoard of Commissloneis on December 10th and olTer explanation of the discrepancies that the rcpoits showed. On that date Messis. Fancll, S. W. Ilcndilcks and ex-Deputy Cleik H. J. -Matthews were present and the leport of the Cleiks's books was llrst read. The affair Is rather oliiinnious, and contains a gieat array of llguies which we cannot lcproduce at this time. The details aie summed up In a pieamble and suggestions are offered. In substance the report says that the investigation was made veiy difficult on account of voucheis not being kept in pioper order, and the state-, ment Is made that "mistakes in making mak-ing entiles consumed a great deal of unnecessary time." In section one the statement is is made that claims, ouchcis and documents aie loosely handled. Section 2 sajs that "for a large part of the money paid out there Is no claim or oucher on file. The stub of warrant Is the only evidence that money has been paid out, and In many instances this Is noticcelptcd." Section II urges caution In rcgaid to issuing wanants. Wanauts ate diawn pajable to bearer and aie signed by Clerk and Auditor. "The Cleik, if so disposed, could cash a pocketful of warrants drawn In favor of other people and It would be difficult diffi-cult to piocuie evidence of fraud." Section 4 sajs "Officers pay out a jficatrWlof money for which no receipt re-ceipt is taken, and urges a dlffctcnt method." Section 5 shows that "In the Clerk's icccipt book stubs ceitalu niimbois are blank, and no explanation is given for same.' , SeciJn 0. "In seveial cases we find that the stub of the warrant book docs notgiee with the entry In the book." "In checking Treasurer's Treasur-er's receipt book stubs with the Clerk's JournaJi'iitries, we find several amounts not entered." Section 7. "In u cursory examination of Tieasuiei's ledger we find his accounts ac-counts do not agree with those of the Clerk's." TltKSUIlKH'S HOOKS 1 A rcpoit of an investigation of tieas- liter's books, dated Nov :i0, states in a preamble that the tax lecelpt stub book for the jcar 1001 is still missing, and then follows In detail a list of Instances wheicin the Trcasuicr.s and cleiks books do not agree. This is due hugely to a difference In the crediting or accounts. Copies of these rcpoits had been previously furnished Messis. Farrell and Hendricks and they weie present on Dec. 10, to explain the discrepancies discrepan-cies etc. Mr. II J. Mathews cx-deputj cx-deputj clerk was also picscnt. The clerk's minutes of this meeting arc as follows. OFFICIALS i:Xl'LAIN. "The follow lug leport on the Clerk's woik was lead by Clerk Larsen, ex-Cleik ex-Cleik Farrell making repeated attempts at-tempts to explain away dlsciepancies, but In eery case it was shown that the iepoit wasconcct. "Ex-Clcik Fairell made the statement state-ment that the mistakes occuired thiough uish of business and overwork. over-work. "Ex-Cleik Fariell and Ex-deputy Cleik Mathews weie asked the question ques-tion bj Chairman Hcndiicks and Mr. Thain as well: 'Should the $3,000 item and other smaller Items viz.: (heic follows list) that receipts were found for In Treasurer's office and entiies made in Tieasuier's books be entered on Cleik's book? "Mr. Fairell answered In substance as follows: "Sure," and when questioned ques-tioned In legard to why the entiies weie not made, answeied that It was due to neglect on pait of the Treasurer Treas-urer in delhciing receipt In question to the cleik." " Mr. Fariell made objection to iepoit ie-poit containing any statement concerning con-cerning the back office work left by him but was notified by commissloneis commisslon-eis that they expected repoit to gie detailed account of the office as It was left by him." " The leport was unanimously accepted." ac-cepted." - TIlKTIlF.ASUIIKIl. Thcipeorton the treasurer's book was lead and the minutes state: "Ex-treasurer Hendricks had no explanation ex-planation other than the neglect of A. L. Farrell and John W. Owen to audit his books, although he(S. W. Ilcndilcks) had repeatedly lequestcd It to be done. Had It been done as the statutes pioldod, ho would Lavebcen able to have detected -the diffeience befoie. "Mr. Ilcndilcks asked commlssion-cis commlssion-cis to have the audit of his books go back four years, the full tenn he was treasuier. This was taken under advisement ad-visement i:.ri:iiT .iuoolino. The auditing committee's details as regards ligurcs show some won-del won-del ful handling of llguies and crediting credit-ing of accounts. Diffuicuccs are not laige, Wit they aie many and are not accounted for. Just what the future may biing forth Is hard to tell and the developments maj jet orovo most Interesting. |